Also 5 ? co(u)choure. [app. a. Anglo-Fr. *couchour = F. coucheur he who lies, a lier, f. coucher: see COUCH v.1]
1. One lying down: in 15th c. quot. perh. one confined to bed; in Sc. one who lies when he ought to be active, a laggard, coward, poltroon.
14[?]. Seven Deadly Sins, 76, in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems, 217. He [Auaryssia] … kepith me low lyke a cochoure.
a. 1661. Rutherford, Lett., I. lxv. (Jam.). To go to the camp with Christ … not … sit at the fire with couchers.
1833. D. Moir, Mansie Wauch, iv. (1849), 20. I took the coucher’s blow.
2. One who couches or crouches.
1880. Browning, Dram. Idylls, Ser. II. Doctor ——. The coucher by the sick man’s head.
† 3. A table-cloth; = COUCH sb.1 4. Obs. rare.
1572. Inv., in T. D. Whitaker, Hist. Craven (1812), 329. One cowcher, or carpett, for a longe table.
† 4. A large book, such as remains lying for use on a desk or table. Obs. Cf. LEDGER.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 84. A whole boke is commonly called indifferentlye a volume, a boke, a coucher: but … A volume is lesse than a boke: and a boke lesse than a coucher.
† b. esp. A large breviary that lay permanently on a desk in church or chapel. Obs.
1444. Will of Clovyle (Somerset Ho.). Librum vocatum a Cowcher ad deseruiendum in ecclesia.
1467. Ripon Ch. Acts, 235. Do et lego ecclesiæ collegiatæ Ripon’, unum coucher magnum de usu Ebor’, quem volo … in stallo præbendæ de Thorp cathena ferrea ligari.
1534. in E. Peacock, Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866), 199. Item an other cowcher with ij claspis of siluer.
1549. Act 3–4 Edw. VI., c. 10 § 1. All Books called … Couchers, Journals, Ordinals … shall be … abolished.
1559. Injunct. Q. Eliz. in Sparrow, Coll. (1675), 47. Item, That the Church-Wardens … shall deliver unto our Visitors the Inventories of Vestments, Copes … and specially of Grayles, Couchers … and such like.
c. A large cartulary or register; a coucher-book. Obs.
1607–37. Cowel, Interpr., Coucher, the general book in which a corporation entreth their particular Acts for a perpetuall remembrance of them.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Coucher … In some old Statutes, it is taken for a Book, in which a Corporation, &c. Register their particular Acts.
† 5. A resident commercial agent or factor in a foreign place. Obs. Cf. ambassador leger.
1601. J. Keymor, Dutch Fishing, in Phenix (1721), I. 227. She [the Herring-Buss] imployeth … at Land Viewers, Packers … Couchers to make the Herrings lawful Merchandizes.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., Cowcher signifieth a factour that continueth in some place … for Trafique.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Coucher, an old Word for a Factor residing in some Foreign Country for Traffick, as formerly in Gascoigne to buy Wines.
† 6. A setter dog. Obs.–0
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Coucher … also a Setter, or Setting-dog.
7. Comb. † coucher-book, a large cartulary.
1611. Cotgr., Chartulaire, a Terrier, or Coucher-book.
1623. Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test., To Rdr. 17. Old charters that I met with among the Kings Records, and in the Coucher-bookes of Monasteries.
1640. Somner, Antiq. Canterb., 155. All extant Stories, Coucher-books or Liegers and Records that ever I could yet see.
1891. J. T. Fowler, Coucher-bk. of Selby (Yks. Record Ser.), I. xvii. The Coucher book, Cartulary, or Register, here printed, is a manuscript on vellum … 13 × 9 inches.
